What is it to be Christian ?

[mrnoodle]

I am not a source for research. I'm just a guy. It's easy to play "battling factoids" and have either side declare themselves the winner. Whoever has the catchiest comeback wins. whatever.

All I'm saying is that there's something that's gradually insinuating itself into our culture, and the evidence of it is growing constantly. It wasn't there 50 years ago. You tell me what it is, since I'm so obviously out of touch.

This thread illustrates what I'm talking about in many ways. I'm saying we're losing a connection to something good and necessary, and the responses vary from wise-ass remarks to deliberate misconstruing of what I'm saying. Flint, this means you. I said there's no atheist conspiracy, let it go. I also said that I was not accusing you of semantic games, so don't prove me wrong.


edit: more posts came in while i was typing. The model for the MTV dog is, in fact, cerberus, and it's meant to be "dark", just like the little heavy metal skulls and stuff. Yes, it has 2 heads, hence MTV2.

The majority of the founding fathers identified with the God of Christianity and the moral precepts from the Judeo-Christian ethic. Christianity was originally a sect of Judaism, and they worship the same God. Deism rejected Christianity, but the Providence they believed in was a version of the western God.

By the way, Thomas Jefferson also wrote:

“The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.”
“Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus.”

"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." [Letter to Benjamin Rush April 21, 1803]

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” [Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781]

“It [the Bible] is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
[Jan 9, 1816 Letter to Charles Thomson]

We can all pull quotes from the bible, from the founding fathers, and from any other text to bolster our own claims and argue against others. But taken as a whole, there is no doubt that the US was a nation of faith at its inception.